Debug continues to be one of the biggest hurdles faced by design and verification engineers. While designing a system that requires close interactions with memories, engineers often rely on print statements or waveform viewers to decipher signal behaviors over time, and/or their relationship relative to other signals over time. While this kind of ad-hoc debugging helps in understanding the behavior of a single signal, it does not work well when debugging protocols.

Many of us who work primarily in digital verification and design are shielded from physical layer details. Only a handful of specialists closely follow these details. So for the rest of us, verifying and debugging Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) can be a daunting task.

In my last post, I covered a basic NVMe VIP test-case including some basic setup, sending a command and receiving a completion. Here, we’ll look at a few more NVMe commands, touching on some of the features and capabilities of the VIP.

As sensors continue to get smaller, more powerful and cheaper, smartphones and other mobile devices incorporate over ten sensors to create self-aware devices. For instance, most recent models of Apple and Samsung handheld devices use several sensors to perform some of their coolest interface tricks: proximity sensor, accelerometer (motion sensor), ambient light sensor, moisture sensor, gyroscope, thermometer and magnetometer (compass). These sensors enable key capabilities for users including location services, health apps, fingerprint scanning and sophisticated gaming while optimizing power usage and WiFi access.

My latest webinar, Keeping Pace with Memory Technology using Advanced Verification, begins by taking the audience back in time. To a time when memories had low density, slow performance, and required expensive silicon real estate. Then I fast forward back to the future when memory technologies have evolved to support huge densities, blazing fast speeds while keeping power consumption low, and all this within very small geometry.

On Monday, Synopsys announced the availability of the industry’s first verification IP (VIP) and source code test suite to support the proposed IEEE P802.3bs/D1.0 Ethernet 400G standard (400GbE). To understand how it will enable next generation networking and communication systems, we take a look at the evolution of the Ethernet.

MIPI Alliance’s CSI-2 (Camera Serial Interface) has achieved widespread adoption in the smartphone industry for its ease-of-use and ability to support a broad range of imaging solutions. MIPI CSI-2 v1.3, which was announced in February 2015, also offers users the opportunity to operate CSI-2 on either of two physical layer specifications: MIPI D-PHY, which CSI-2 has used traditionally, as well as MIPI C-PHY, a new PHY that MIPI first released in September 2014. Products may implement CSI-2 solutions using either or both PHYs in the same design. MIPI CSI-2 v1.3 with C-PHY provides performance gains and increased bandwidth delivery for realizing higher resolution, better color depth, and higher frame rates on image sensors while providing pin compatibility with MIPI D-PHY.

This week, at ARM Techcon 2015, Synopsys announced the availability of our VC Verification IP for the new ARM AMBA 5 Advanced High-Performance Bus 5 (AHB5) interconnect. The AHB5 protocol is an update to the widely adopted AMBA 3 AHB3 specification. It extends the TrustZone security foundation from the processor to the entire system for embedded designs. AHB5 supports the newly announced ARMv8-M architecture which drives security into the hardware layer to ensure developers have a fast and efficient way of protecting any embedded or Internet of Things (IoT) device.

A global team of protocol experts that share their insights and technical expertise in the areas of Automotive, DRAM and Flash Memories, Storage, Display, MIPI, AMBA, Ethernet, PCIe, USB and many other bus and interface protocols. This comprehensive team participates in standards committees and will provide the latest information and updates as it relates to your future design considerations.